Learning to Live Off-the-Grid with Fast Cob!

I’m excited to announce our newest Workshop: Fast Cob! and Learning to Live Off the Grid

This will be the 29th Workshop we’ve hosted…after living off-the-grid for 16 years, it’s time to share what we’ve learned with you! This is a brand new workshop due to popular request!

We’ll split our workshop time each day between learning to build (with Fast Cob!) and learning to setup a comfortable, convenient and self-sustaining life off-the-grid. It’s not only possible, you’ll witness firsthand all the tricks and techniques I’ve learned over the years. This workshop will fast track anyone to a more sustainable and enjoyable life, anywhere.

Fast Cob! will give you the tools to create shelter and much, much more, but we’ll also look at many ways to collect rainwater, use greywater, create a garden site, forage wild foods and preserve our abundance. All the water-based systems that we will look at are created and maintained without fossil fuels and are powered by gravity (which means they always work). The electrical systems we’ll look at and discuss in detail are solar and micro-hydro powered.

By learning and using Fast Cob!, we will see firsthand how humans can build with what nature provides, without destroying the beauty that is offered. You’ll also have many opportunities to master making cob itself, modifying the “traditional west coast” method so that you can mix up to 10 times faster! Using “the brick” method, we’ll get our walls up as much as 30x faster! Not only will you learn how to build naturally and affordably, you’ll learn how to do it efficiently enough to be empowered to build on your own or keep your community of builders interested and inspired to keep building with you.

Our afternoons will focus on digging deep into the whys and hows of off-the-grid systems, including:

rainwater collection systems, for drinking and for gardens,

greywater reuse systems,

how to create lush gardens from chicken, human, and plant waste,

solar electrical systems,

micro-hydro electrical systems,

solar hot water systems, and

human-powered transportation systems.

We’ll also get hands-on experience using both cob and solar ovens to bake, cook, and steam fresh, local, organic yummies straight from the garden!

Our daily (Sunday to Friday) schedule looks like this:
8:30am hot breakfast then Fast Cob!
11:15 snack break then more Fast Cob!
1pm lunch then Off the Grid Living and Learning
5:30 dinner
6:30 evening program (one night we will learn about a magical land coop; another we’ll learn how to hand-split cedar shakes, and the last will be talent night where we all share one or more talents).

More and more people are realizing that the on-the-grid life doesn’t work for them anymore. If you want a more fulfilling and enjoyable life, consider living how humans have lived for millions of years: off-the-grid! And when you’re ready, we’ll be here to help.

And this year, we’re ready for any weather! If the rains come early, we have lots of indoor space for you to pitch your tent or rent a bed. For all the workshop details, and to fill in our online application, please visit cob.lasqueti.ca/workshops